Thursday, 14 October 2010

The players who took part in their countries international fixtures on Tuesday will be making their way to London Colney to take part in training with Arsenal for the first time in ten days. Jack Wilshere was back yesterday, having not been involved on the pitch for England's draw with Montenegro.

It will be today that Arsene Wenger can assess his players ahead of a punishing schedule for the next month with two games every week.

You've got to expect some squad rotation during that time so it will be important that all of our injured players are not rushed back before they are physically ready.

There doesn't appear to be any fresh injuries picked up during the international break apart from Bacray Sagna's thigh injury which will keep him out for another two weeks.

One player who we've not seen in Arsenal colours this season at all is Aaron Ramsey.

Yesterday the official site announced he was back in training with the first team squad. He could make his comeback within six weeks.

At the moment he is working with the ball after a lot of rehabilitation work with weights in the gym.

"I think I'm on track, the target is November time. I'm just doing my pre-season work now, trying to get a bit of spring back in my right leg, but apart from that all is going well so far.

"I've been doing strengthening exercises for a long time now and I'm starting to feel the benefits. I'm now outside training with the fitness coach and I feel good."

A gallery of images of the Welshman in action on the official site. To be honest I'm trying to rein in my excitement about seeing Aaron back in training. Now all I want him to do is pull on his number 16 shirt and run out of the tunnel at the Grove.

He showed such promise during the start of last season, breaking through to score in our first home game of the 2009/10 season against Portsmouth and went on to make 12 starts and 17 substitute appearances, scoring four goals.

It was special seeing him step up and I think a lot of Gooners like me were expecting him to really push on in the second half of the season and make a difference. However after Ryan Shawcross' horror challenge which caused Ramsey's injury, there was no way that early promise was to be fulfilled with a full season of progress.

Now I'm itching to see him again, but know that Arsene Wenger will take special care with him and that seeing him in anything more than a few games will be wishful thinking.

Talking of the manager, he's again been speaking about clubs spending money they don't have to better themselves.

"My ambitions at Arsenal are simple: to win everything. Cups and the Premier League. Arsenal are capable, every season, of playing at the highest possible level without losing 200m Euros (£175m) every year.

"That is not the case with all my colleagues in England and in the rest of Europe."

We can all see that Arsenal is a well run club, but until one of the big teams goes out of business, can we really see the football authorities taking action? I very much doubt it.

I know UEFA are bringing in financial rules for those wishing to take part in European competition, but are they really going to not allow Manchester United, Real Madrid or Barcelona to compete despite their clubs not being run without barrow loads of debt? I very much doubt it. It would make a mockery of the Champions League if they weren't involved.

The manager is also linked with a role with Paris Saint-Germain, but that's not going to happen anytime soon. As ever it is Arsene doing us usual polite gesture and never ruling anything in or out, hence the speculation.

One decision Wenger will have to make is who will start in goal on Saturday against Birmingham, after Manuel Almunia stated he is "trying to be fit" for the game.

I personally would stick with Lukasz Fabianski. I think he hasn't done a lot wrong in either the Partizan or Chelsea games to warrant being dropped. However Almunia is our senior keeper so I wouldn't be surprised if he did return between the sticks.

We are linked this morning with Athletic Bilbao goalkeeper Gorka Iraizoz by the Daiily Mirror and Fiorentina stopper Artur Boruc by The Sun.

Far to early in my opinion to talk about who we will and won't sign in the January transfer window.

Finally, Jack Wilshere has been talking to the official site about his development and how he can learn from the likes of Cesc Fabregas, Samir Nasri and Denilson.

The manager will be interviewed later by the official site, so expect some early team news for Saturday. Lets hope there are no fresh injuries.